| -- Visiting Oscar -- |
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| "There's no friend like an old friend" "Who the &%*# are you calling old?" -- me One of the highlights of my Japan trip (and one of the most eagerly anticipated events thereof) was visiting my good friend Oscar after 27 years or so. No, Oscar isn't his real name, (my immediate family knows his real name, and the rest of you could probably care less) but he has requested a measure of anonymity that I choose to respect. Besides, his "old" name is one that I equate with a depressed, set-upon, skinny 12 year old that I wrote sci-fi stories with, and he is far from that now. Hence, even in casual converation, I generally now refer to him as Oscar. So, it's a nickname, if anyone cares. I reconnected with Osc a couple of years ago (while I was still in school). I did a random Google search for his name, and came up with a couple links that looked promising. Almost immediately after I emailed, I received a reply. Yes, it was him, and he remembered me, so we entered into a casual correspondence, catching up as best we could over the Internet. His life had changed a lot. Yes, he was still writing, but now he was a doctor, married with 2 kids. He once thought that I was the same Thomas Harris that wrote "Silence of the Lambs" (because it "seemed like something you would write", he said.) It's very weird and somewhat unnerving meeting someone again after almost no contact for so many years. When you consider that we were both 12 the last time we had seen each other, I went into our visit with some trepidation. Mostly, I was worried that we might not have a lot to say to each other. It turns out that I need not have worried. We had PLENTY to talk about. "Hey, Osc" the phone call went, "I'm at Oita station.. I'll meet you by the statue of the guy walking his sword on a leash", I said. 15 minutes later, he drove up, and the rest is history. I planned my visit to Oita around his schedule. He had 2 full days off, and we managed to pack a lot of sightseeing and general meandering into that brief time. I arrived on a Tuesday night, and he picked me up on his way home from work. We weren't allowed to go home, he said; his wife was frantically cleaning their house. They had both had a hectic week. Instead, we wandered over to the sea front, and wasted time looking at old Edo-period buildings, the gaudy facades of Oita's most notorious love hotels, and had a drink. Finally, we headed back to their house; a modest, neat home in a nice Oita neighborhood, and then piled into their SUV for dinner at a local family-style restaurant. D you speak English?" I asked his kids.. his 9-year-old daughter just shook her head 'no', the 14-year old son grinned and replied "I don't speak English, and I don't write it either" (in perfect English, naturally) -- I must add at this point, that Oscar's English is almost perfect. he speaks very well, and has a impressive level of fluency. However, as in many people who learn English by reading a lot, he sometimes mispronounces words that he hasn't heard used in speech. I hope he didn't mind my corrections too much ;) His wife and kids' English is less fluent, and so communicating with them was sometimes a bit more challenging. Still, they speak and understand a lot more English than I think they realize. I must say that the warmth with which I was recieved by all was extremely welcome, and I quickly fell into a comfortable banter with Osc's wife and kids. I liked them all immediately. Oscar's son is a happier version of Oscar himself as a kid, and their daughter is just like Oscar's sister was at the same age. To say 'very imaginative' would be an understatment. But as they're as endearing as kids ever are. After coming back from dinner, Osc and I sat and sipped some sake and some 30-year-old Inchgower whisky he had brought back from Scotland. "I thought you'd be a bigger drinker" he told me... "Why? Do I seem like that much of a lush?" I laughed.. The following day, we three men set off for some sightseeing. (Osc. Jr. had the day off from school) -- Our first stop was a small Buddhist temple called Daijoin. This was a place that I had specifically requested he take me, and this shrine is home to an unusual relic. The relic in question is a mummified.... something... generally described as a 'monster'. To me it looked like a mummified human with extra "stuff" added to head, hands and feet. But what do I know? All I know is that it's not good to disrespect the monster, so I paid my respects and we moved on. Next, we headed north to Usa Shrine. The town of Usa itself, by popular legend, is a place where Japanese companies would register their businesses in the late 40's so that they could mark their goods "MADE IN USA" back when "Made In Japan" was hardly a recommendation of quality. How true the legend is, I don't know. The real reason to go to Usa is to see the shrine. It's the principal of all of the Hachiman shrines throughout Japan, and has a very interesting history. Their small museum contains displays of how the shrine developed over the centuries, and contains a lot of interesting relics, including 1400-year-old swords that look as new as they were made yesterday. While we were there, I bought a fortune from the vendor, and got a little gold Hachiman figure that rides around in my wallet. Afterwards, we had some soba for lunch, and then headed out to another site; Kumano Magaibutsu. Here there are some very old carved Buddhas in the rock face of a cliff. To get there, you have to climb some disorderly stone steps (said to have been built by an ogre in a single night). The Buddhas themselves date back at least as far as 718 CE, with one of them possibly much older. back to town, where we did a little sightseeing at a huge department store, got some takoyaki for Osc's kid, and then headed back to their home to prepare for dinner with his parents. A note here: Oscar's mother was a member of the jewelry-making group that met in our Cleveland Heights basement. My mother sent along a small friendship gift for me to deliver, so a dinner was planned for me to meet with his parents in Beppu, deliver the gift, and get re-acquainted with them. The whole evening was relatively painless, and I had the amusement of watching both Oscar and his father get drunk while I drank just as much as they did and stayed sober. Lightweights...HA! (just kidding, Osc!) Oscar's mom also sent a package with me to send to my mother, and that was essentially the evening. The following day it was just Oscar and I. We had decided that a sail in his sailboat would be a good way to spend the day, so we drove up to the home of his friend and skipper, Joshua (not his real name either, I just don't remember his real name), who lives in a very interesting house... it's decorated largely with cast-off junk that has been rehabilitated. The place is very nice, and neat to browse around in. The pipe stand he made from a dog skull was particularly interesting. Unfortunately, we were informed that the rudder of the boat wasn't working properly, so we had to pass on sailing. Instead, we decided to see more of the countryside, and we went for a long drive, discussing Burroughs and Bukowski, and stopping along the way to see some more Buddhas. These were small road-side Buddhas placed there by the faithful alongside the ancient road. As time went on, many of these were buried and forgotten. When they widened the road in modern times, many of these Buddhas were unearthed, and were gathered together in one little convention o' serenity. I took a picture of Ezer (my little bear) sitting on the head of one of the Buddhas there. From there, we went down into a deep ravine (on fairly precarious steel steps) which had no historical significance, but was a stunning place with steep, closely spaced walls, and quite a few small waterfalls and seeps. The place had a primieval air that is rare to find in Japan. The stream was easilly crossed by use of stepping stones. My pictures from there came out poorly, but I would love to go back there and hike one day. We also made a brief stop at Yusuhara, a small weather-beaten shrine set in a gorgeous hilly wooded area. The place was full of faded and weather-worn old paintings (one of which is now shown in my Japan photo gallery), but the impressive thing about this shrine is a 500 year old taiko drum. For a small donation, you can bang on the drum all you want. Of course I had to give it a try myself. How often do you get to bang on a drum that was made before Europeans settled North America? Moving on, we went to see yet more stone buddhas, the Usuki Makai clusters. We didn't see all of them, but there are 60 or so of them, grouped into 4 clusters. We saw the Furuzono buddhas, which are 3/4 relief cliff carvings, and are the most impressive of the lot. The Deva King photo on my web page is from that stop. On our way back to Oita, we stopped in Usuki village, where we saw the ruins of the castle there. This castle was the home of the "guy walking his sword on a leash" whose statue now stands in front of Oita train station. There isn't a whole lot to see there now, except for a plaque commemorating the old man himself, a reproduction of a bronze cannon (a gift to the local lord from the Portugese) and some rusty playground equipment. That night, Oscar had a meeting at work, so I had a large part of the evening alone with his family. His wife prepared leftovers from the dinner at Oscar's parents' the night before, and we had tea and chocolates, and made small talk in both English and Japanese. I also showed Jr. how to juggle 2 apple-pears... a stunt that proved messy when he tried to show off with it later, and for which they will probably never forgive me...heheh... I also got to admire the kids' truly impressive collections of Lego and stuffed animals. After Oscar's return, we spent the rest of the evening talking, and drinking together. I saw all his old travel photos of Europe, discussed our mutual love for Scotland, and came to such profound conclusions as that we were like Fred and Barney, except that neither one of us wanted to be Fred (so we're both Barney). It was a good time. An unforgettable one. In some ways, you can go home again. I rediscovered in Oscar an old friend that had changed a great deal, but remained the same in so many ways. I enjoyed his company, his warmth, his genial intellect, the acceptance of he and his family, and how they made me feel like part of the family rather than just a houseguest. I'd like to think that we won't lose touch again. I hope we don't. |